Zombies have replaced vampires as the cult favorite de jour.
Movies, TV shows and even commercials about zombies are too numerous to count.
But is a zombie apocalypse really possible?
The honest answer is yes. It is not only possible but we
have been living in one for two-thousand years.
“Then the Jews began to
argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to
them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. “He who eats My flesh and
drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. “For
My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. “He who eats My flesh and
drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. “As the living Father sent Me, and
I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of
Me. “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate
and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” – John 6, 52-58
The people following Jesus hoping for a free lunch began to
leave him. Eat Jesus? Is this guy crazy? That is cannibalism and I will have no
part in it. What did Jesus do? Knowing the people did not understand what he
had just told them stopped them and told them he was only speaking symbolically.
He meant metaphorically eat him, not actually eat him.
“Therefore
many of His disciples, when they heard this
said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” But Jesus,
conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause
you to stumble?” – John 6, 60-61
A metaphor is difficult and people cannot listen to it?
Symbolism can cause you to stumble? The act of eating a piece of bread that
symbolizes the body of Jesus is so difficult to comprehend that Jesus even asks
his twelve if they will leave him because of it.
The truth Catholics believe is that Jesus was not speaking
metaphorically. He actually meant that we must eat his body and drink his blood
if we wish to have eternal life within us. He did not reveal how this would
happen until the night before his death.
“While
they were eating, Jesus took some
bread, and after a blessing, He broke it
and gave it to the disciples,
and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given
thanks, He gave it to them,
saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which
is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” – Matthew 26, 26-28
On the night he was betrayed Jesus gave us the Sacrament of
the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity
of Jesus himself. He did this to fulfill a promise he makes to the twelve to be
with us until the end of the age. In his resurrected body, before he ascended
to the Father, Jesus could only be in one physical place at a time. After his ascension
back into the eternalness of time he could then descend back into the Eucharist
any place or time it is consecrated. In this way and in a very real sense, Jesus
is with us, body, blood, soul, and divinity until the end of the age.
Those who partake in the Eucharist worthily consume the
flesh of the son of man. We eat his flesh and drink his blood and we have life
within us as he promised. Those who don’t are the walking dead, the zombies
among us. The eat and eat and eat their symbolic bread but are never truly filled. They hunger and are never satisfied.
The Eucharist is the source and summit of the entire Catholic faith.
If Jesus were only speaking to us in a metaphor and only wanted us to
symbolically eat his flesh our entire faith would be a fruitless lie.
And what would a post on zombies be without some actual
zombie apocalypse video? Watch until the end. This is a great expression of our
faith.
